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Jabaticaba and it's uses pictured.

Suncoast Grown and Gathered: March Jaboticaba – A Bountiful Harvest from Trunk to Table!

by Forest Hecker and Mindy HanakForest Hecker, Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ Community Educator for Sarasota County's UF/IFAS Extension and Sustainability Department.
March 14, 2025

At the Sarasota County UF/IFAS Extension Office, we've been cultivating a Food Forest to showcase the most productive, unique, and often underutilized fruits suited to our distinctive southwest Florida climate. Through this project, ... READ MORE

Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Fruits & Vegetables, Home Landscapes, Horticulture
Tags: Agriculture, Edible Gardening QOTW, EdibleGardeningSeries, FFL, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Food, Garden, Horticulture, Landscape, Landscaping, Pgm_HortRes
Round springtail navigates through the sandy soil in a landscape

Spring Forward – Like a Springtail!

by Jackie Lebouitz
March 14, 2025

All across the state, many disgruntled denizens adjusted their clocks this past Sunday, March 9, to accommodate daylight savings time. While this lets us have longer days, a historically helpful tool for farming...it can be a bit disruptive ... READ MORE

Category: Agriculture, Conservation, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Fruits & Vegetables, Home Landscapes, Lawn, Natural Resources, UF/IFAS Extension, Wildlife
Tags: Collembola, Entomology, Garden, Insect, Pgm_Chemicals, Soil, Spring, Springtail
Field of Lyreleaf Sage with Tiger Swallowtail

What Is That Lawn Ornament? Native Purple Powerhouse, Lyreleaf Sage!

by Forest Hecker
March 12, 2025

Welcome to our Lawn Ornament blog series, where we explore the plethora of micro-plants that can help create a biodiverse, predominantly green, yet also delightfully colorful lawn that requires much less maintenance than a traditional grass ... READ MORE

Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes, Lawn, Work & Life
Tags: FFL, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Garden, Horticulture, Landscape, Landscaping, Lawn, Nature, Pgm_HortRes
Mangrove background, Bahama Swampbush and native Swampbush in foreground with an assortment of hummingbirds found in Florida.

Florida’s Best Hummingbird Plant? Native Endangered Swampbush!

by Forest Hecker
February 10, 2025

A year ago, I was attending the Chocolate Festival at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Overwhelmed by the crowd, I took a short walk into the "lowlands" of the garden—an area I rarely explore unless searching for the resident crocodile. But ... READ MORE

Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes, UF/IFAS Extension, Wildlife
Tags: FFL, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Garden, Horticulture, Landscape, Landscaping, Nature, Pgm_HortRes, Wildlife

Suncoast Grown and Gathered: December Macademia Nuts

by Forest Hecker
December 22, 2024

At the Sarasota County UF/IFAS Extension Office, we've been cultivating a Food Forest to showcase the most productive, unique, and often underutilized edible plants suited to our distinctive southwest Florida climate. Through this project, ... READ MORE

Category: Work & Life
Tags: Eating Locally Grown, EatingLocallyGrown, EdibleGardeningSeries, FFL, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Food, Garden, Grown And Gathered, GrownAndGathered, Horticulture, Landscape, Landscaping, Pgm_HortRes

Plants at Their Peak: Skyblue Clustervine!

by Forest Hecker
November 14, 2024

For those in search of a native showstopper, Skyblue Clustervine (Jacquemontia pentanthos)—also known as Key West Morning Glory—is truly a gem. Native to South Florida, where it is listed as an endangered species, this vine is currently ... READ MORE

Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes, UF/IFAS Extension
Tags: Conservation, FFL, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Garden, Horticulture, Landscape, Landscaping, Pgm_HortRes

Suncoast Grown and Gathered: October Persimmons

by Forest Hecker
October 31, 2024

At the Sarasota County UF/IFAS Extension Office, we've been cultivating a Food Forest to showcase the most productive, unique, and often underutilized fruits suited to our distinctive southwest Florida climate. Through this project, ... READ MORE

Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Fruits & Vegetables, Home Landscapes
Tags: Eating Locally Grown, EatingLocallyGrown, FFL, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Garden, Grown And Gathered, GrownAndGathered, Horticulture, Landscape, Landscaping, Pgm_HortRes
Gator cartoon and lubber grasshopper

Backyard Bugs: Identifying Insects in the Landscape

by Jackie Lebouitz
July 15, 2024

There are more than 12,500 species of insects...in Florida, alone! For the average person, it can be difficult to distinguish between common, garden-variety ladybugs. And, it can be just as difficult to understand the difference between a "good" ... READ MORE

Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes, Lawn, Pests & Disease, Pests & Disease, Turf, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension, Wildlife
Tags: Bug, Garden, Insects, Landscape, Pests, Pgm_Chemicals, Plants, StarterKit
Yellow flower from a luffa plant. Photo taken 07-19-22. UF/IFAS Photo by Cat Wofford

Summer Style! ABCs of Edible Gardening for Your Newcomer Kit

by Mindy Hanak
June 14, 2024

Yes, you CAN grow food in Florida year-round. BUT it is important to take a few things into consideration before taking the sweaty plunge into hot season vegetable gardening. Here we aim to share garden tasks and ideas that are seasonally appropriate ... READ MORE

Category: Fruits & Vegetables, Health & Nutrition, Home Landscapes, Work & Life
Tags: Agriculture, EdibleGardeningSeries, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Food, Garden, Health, Horticulture, Nutrition, Pgm_Gardens, Vegetable Gardening
Field of Florida betony

What Is That Lawn Ornament?! Florida Betony? A Crunchy Choice Edible!

by Forest Hecker
April 1, 2024

A handful of the "lawn ornaments" that will be featured in this blog series. Top row (left to right): sunshine powderpuff, perennial peanut, frogfruit, and daisy fleabane. Bottom row (left to right): manyflower pennywort, bay lobelia, Florida ... READ MORE

Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes, Lawn, Turf
Tags: FFL, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Garden, Horticulture, Landscape, Landscaping, Lawn, Pgm_HortRes

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